Pali Metre

Pali A Contribution to the History of Indian Literature. The present work is a study of the problems presented by the metres in the Pali Canon, seen in their historical setting as representing the Early Middle Indian phase in the development of Indian metrics. During this phase, which is regarded as corresponding to a turning point in the linguistic transition from Old Indian (Vedic) to Late Middle Indian (Apabhramsa), a number of new metres appeared and an entirely new technique of versification was developed, differing in principle from the old Vedic technique. The new technique was adopted alike for the Sanskrit and Prakrit literature of the following centuries and its understanding should lead to a better appreciation of that phase of Indian poetry too. The attempt is made to collect and assess all previous contributions to the study of the ancient Indian metres and closely related subjects. The interrelations between these connected fields have been sought, leading to mutual elucidation of problems. The language of the Pali Canon presents many difficulties which have to be investigated before we can tackle the problems of scansion, whilst the linguistic and metrical trends constantly interacted. The most significant feature of the new metres was their close connection with music, the study of which has proved to be indispensable in our research on the history of Indian literature. Pali Text Society, Ancillary Works